Cupcake or Babe - An Awakening
by Vulcan Rider
Summary: Joe wakes up to the truth after Steph chooses Ranger. He doesn't like what he hears. But will he finally accept it?


**Cupcake or Babe - An Awakening**  
**By: Vulcan Rider**

_A/N: I know you're waiting for an update to "Mercenary," but this wouldn't leave me alone. Just a little something for you to enjoy, while I'm trying to find the voice of some 'Burg residents for chapter 2 of "Mercenary." Thanks for reading!_

_**Disclaimer: The characters you recognize belong to Janet Evanovich. No copyright infringement is intended.**_

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"C'mon, Cupcake. You **know** you don't really want to be with this thug," Joe said as he looked at her with a smug grin.

"Yeah, Morelli, I really, _really_ do. You just never realized it. I could waste hours standing here listing the reasons why, but I have better things to do; and they're all at Haywood."

Joe stood in her parking lot as he watched her walk off toward the Turbo, then looked up into Ranger's blank face. "What are you looking at, Manoso? She may be sitting in _your_ car at the moment, but she knows deep down that she's _mine_. She'll _always_ be mine. I'll _always_ be her first. She'll be my **Cupcake** for the rest of our lives, even if she's fooled herself into thinking that you really want her for now."

Ranger looked at him with a smirk and said, "Joe, have you ever noticed that she always calls you 'Morelli' and not your first name? Do you ever wonder why that is? Have you ever watched her face when I call her Babe... or watched her face when _you_ call her Cupcake? **That's** where your attention **should** have been, instead of on her tits, while you were spouting about the _'boys missing her'_ because if you had, you'd have noticed the flinch everytime she heard the word Cupcake."

Morelli's head came up at that. "What the fuck are you talking about? She loves me calling her that."

Ranger looked at him with a mixture of disgust, and the kind of pity you reserve for stupid animals who run in front of a moving car because they _just_ don't know any better. He realized that he wasn't going to get by with a one or two word answer with this dense prick. "No, Joe. Every time she hears the word, 'Cupcake', it reminds her of your arrogant, cocky grin as you pulled up your jeans before you swaggered out of the bakery, leaving her with blood between her thighs, on the cold, nasty floor. She had to go home that night with the memory of that look, and then hear from her mother the next morning over breakfast, about what a slut she was, for giving her virginity to you on a bakery floor before you left town. She had to sit there over food she couldn't choke down, and hear about her ruined reputation that all the 'Burg gossips had already called her mother about, because _you_ bragged about it on public walls all over town.

"Not only that, but she spent the rest of her High School experience, which _should_ have been full of fun dates, dances and Prom, fending off advances from other guys just like you, who **now** thought she was _'easy'_ and wanted to taste her _'creamy center'_ to see how _'soft and sweet'_ she was.

"What did you do with all those chances she gave you to prove you were a changed man after she cleared your name? Did you tell her how smart and special she was, for putting the clues together that solved your cases, and thank her for the help? Or were you too arrogant to give her any credit, instead telling her that her _'luck'_ was going to run out and she was going to get killed? You'd look down her shirt, and call her 'Cupcake' so she wouldn't forget that you fucked her first. What you didn't realize was that to her, that **wasn't** a great memory. All that did was send a negative vibe through her, reminding her of that nasty floor and the humiliation. She didn't look at you and see someone who would love and respect her. Every time she hears that name, she feels like that shamed, teenage girl who had to put up with ridicule the rest of the school year.

"Know this, though. When she hears me call her 'Babe' she _**TRUSTS**_ that I care about her, that I think she's beautiful and smart and worth more than what's between her legs or under her shirt. And Joe, every time you see her in the future, and start to call her 'Cupcake,' remember this... _**I'LL**_ be the only man from now on between her legs, tasting her creamy center. And she knows that what we do together will _**NEVER**_ end up on a public wall.

"You've spent so much time trying to remind her that you were her first, when all along, it was her _**worst**_ memory. She didn't hit you with the Buick and break your leg because the sex was so great, did she? The only reason she stayed with you so long after she cleared your name, was because after we slept together the first time, I told her she needed to repair her relationship with you, thinking she wanted the 'Burg life that I couldn't give her. I didn't know, at _that_ time, what all you had done to her, or that the 'Burg life was her worst nightmare. Her mother nagged her into marrying Orr. She damn near nagged her into marrying YOU. But, Steph finally told me that she never wanted that life; that she loved ME. And I'll make DAMN sure that she knows I'll not only protect her body with my own life, but I'll also protect her heart and her reputation."

Joe followed Ranger to the Turbo, and walked to the passenger side, confident that their history together would soon have her back in his bed. Stephanie rolled down the window and asked what he wanted _now;_ she told him to get it all out because it was the last conversation they were _ever_ having. He gave her his melted chocolate eyes and looked at her and said, "Cupcake, I..." that's when he noticed the flinch. He stopped mid-sentence.

She waited a moment, then said, "If you have nothing more to say, I'm out of here."

Ranger asked her, "Where to first, Babe?" Joe noticed the loving look and the tender smile at Ranger's "Babe" as she told him, "Haywood, I'm ready to go home." He knew then, that he'd lost her forever; that he'd probably never had her in the first place. He was _still_ that teenage boy trying to prove he was better than his father, and failing miserably.


End file.
